I struggled with whether it would be appropriate to post this, but I decided to go ahead and do it anyway, so apologies to anyone who considers this off topic.
I’ve been a member here for about a year.
In that time, I’ve bought 9 trees from some of the best nurseries, to see 8 out of the 9 thrive. The nurseries, the rootstocks, and the varieties were all recommended to me or were things I read about on this site.
I’ve successfully bench-grafted 7 apples to rootstock (out of 12 I attempted, though 2 alive and growing ones were killed by the dog, so my success rate is more like 75%–and I knew nothing except for what I read on this site.). I ordered some of those apple scions from the USDA, which Ihad no idea you could do until I came to this website. And I’ve had some great success thus far-one apple from Romania and one from the Czech Republic have matched my Black Limbertwig in growth and being disease free (thus far, of course.). I’m completely excited by my little experiment.
I was even able to successfully graft an apricot on my first try. It hasn’t taken off, but it’s hanging in there and I have high hopes for next year.
And the people who sent me scions when I had nothing to send back, just because they were nice folks-thank you, thank you, thank you.
I can’t say enough how much this site has taught me and how many friendly, generous people I’ve met on here.
I’m making plans now for how to make my one apricot tree a multigraft, and wondering just how many more apple trees will fit in my backyard next year. Also looking forward to sharing some scions next year and hopefully giving back a bit more.
Thank you, all of you. To many more years of growing and learning!
It sounds corny to say write it out but before I found this site I felt like a weirdo in the woods. I knew what I wanted to do, grow food for me and my family. I read books and searched the internet, even those who say they are experts, but still had questions. I felt like I was the only one trying to accomplish my goal of growing fruit in my yard, for my family, benefiting from the labor I set forth every night with a head lamp and a little piece of paper that listed what I wanted to accomplish while every house I could see had the TV glow radiating from the windows. Honestly it got discouraging at points when I would fail, over and over again, because there was NO INFORMATION about the best varieties, or what would work where, or how to at least try and grow organic fruit despite the troubles.
I found this site after googling Scott because his name kept coming up in the Houzz website thingy. It was like an oasis. No one has the information this forum has on growing fruit, even books by experts. You people are the experts and you share your information so freely and in depth that it inspires me to keep expanding and trying despite the failures. For example, Barkslip’s recent rating of American Persimmon. As far as I can tell, that is the most in depth, well researched, complete rating of varieties out there. The only other advice on the internet is “get a name variety.” I now know what I will be trying next year.
I love gardening and having an orchard. I used to wish I could spend my day chatting about growing stuff, but no one in my life shared the same interest at the same intensity level. Now I log on to this site when I get to work and get to read and talk about gardening all day long. It’s great. Thank you everyone for your patients and expertise and willingness to share.
I wholeheartedly agree with VSOP. A year and a half ago I was a total fruit newbie, and now I feel I have a pretty good knowledge about different varieties, rootstocks, pruning and although I’ve yet to try it, grafting, and other things. Yes, I have pored over many, many articles online and elsewhere. But, it has to be also be said that the folks on here are very generous with their time, expertise, and just general friendliness. I am still new at this, and haven’t even really harvested any fruit that I planted, other than a few strawberries this year. I look forward to many years, Lord willing, of us enjoying many different types of fruit.
We kinda live out in the boonies, so there aren’t a lot of folks to talk about such things, although some do grow some fruit to a certain degree. My wife has a Facebook account and gets on to me for bogarting it, saying I need to get my own account. I haven’t told her, but I’m sure she’d agree that this is my FB! Many thanks to Scott for starting it, and to all the folks for making it fun.
Dittos and more dittos.
Surely growers are a different breed. IMHO the therapy we receive from growing and nurturing trees and plants promotes the better side of mankind - generosity clearly being one ‘side-effect’. And, if I might add, for the most part, there is an obvious absence of meanness. Again, likely a beneficial side effect.
Thanks to all.
Also looking forward to sharing some scions next year and hopefully giving back a bit more.